Broadcast 306

Dr. Ira Sharlip was the guest for this Space Show program. We began the interview talking about his desire to be a space tourist in the late 1980's when he escrowed his $5,000 deposit with the former Society Expeditions for the Project Space Voyage Program. Had the program actually taken place, he would been on the second tourist flight that orbited Earth from five to eight times before returning eight to twelve hours later. Dr. Sharlip said the vision that he had back then still burned bright if not brighter, but given the opportunity to spend $200,000 for a short suborbital flight today, he probably would not do it. He explained that he most likely needed more time to savor being in space than just a few minutes at best, especially to realize and absorb the full meaning of the space/zero g experience. When asked if he thought a market existed for a $200,000 suborbital flight, he agreed that there were sufficiently wealthy people that would jump at the opportunity to spend a few minutes looking back at Earth. Dr. Sharlip was asked many space medical questions. While he is not a space medicine doctor, he clearly knows the ins and outs of the issues at hand. He talked about setting upper age limits for space tourists until more is know about taking ordinary people into space. As more is known and based upon results and experiences, the age limits would slowly expand. The same for setting lower end age limits but here he thought it mostly had to do with the maturity progress of bone and system developments. We talked about screening passengers for health risks, emotional, and mental concerns. He thought a quick suborbital flight would be far more forgiving than an orbital flight or a two week stay in a space hotel. In response to several questions, he repeated several times that someone desiring to be a space tourist would have to understand that it was a risky venture and assume the risk on his or her own. He did not even think that the absence of life insurance for such a flight would be a deal breaker for most people. We talked about having doctors or other trained medical personnel and equipment on the flight that could manage health emergencies and while he said much of this was possible, he would rather pursue trying to screen them out from the flight. Dr. Sharlip felt that the Hubble Space Telescope should be saved and you will both enjoy and appreciate his comments and perspective regarding Hubble. He supports returning to the Moon and going on to Mars to stay and had much to say about activities to be undertaken by the private sector in space, however, he seems to understand the timeline for this type of commercial development very well and is looking very long term, not short term for progress in this and related areas. Based on many questions that Dr. Sharlip fielded, he answered the always present question from naysayer's about why not spend more tax money on cancer research and health issues than on space. Since this is one of the times we have had the opportunity to hear a medical doctor answer this genre of questions, you will certainly want to hear the program to hear how Dr. Sharlip addressed this issue. We can certainly learn from his answer when we as advocates, space enthusiasts, and space businessmen and women are compelled to address the same concerns. During the Special Edition part of the program, we talked about his experiences in Iraq working with Iraqi doctors. He explained what he saw and experienced in Iraq as compared to what he hears from the news media (all of it regardless of type) and the government. His view is far more positive than what is reported. He remains in email contact with his Iraqi counterparts, talked about the effect of the recent elections on the Iraqi people and his friends and while understanding why the news media industry focuses on the negative not the substantial positive which is going on in country, its hard to understand why our government does not more effectively bring the positive to the attention of the people. Listen to this show for unique and interesting perspectives on space tourism, space medicine, space programs and development, and as a bonus, a first-hand in-country report on our continued involvement in Iraq.